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I suppose that you've already seen this?

http://www.mondodesigno.com/linux/cf41.html

Who honestly cares about or uses Ogg?

I care. Some media activists care. All artists definitely should care. And, most importantly, some great hackers care as well.

Seriously, as much as I constantly feel insulted by the bloody ignorance of profanum vulgus, or unwashed masses, if you will--please don't mind if I take offence to you outrageously ignorant remark--I don't really care who cares about the software I use--be it Debian, OpenBSD, EROS, PostgreSQL, Perl 6 or Ogg Vorbis--as long as the developers care. We don't need large user base to break even, now do we?

Music is very important to me, almost as important as the freedom I have. And it's not about the price, mind you. I write it listening to another version of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23, I couldn't resist to buy today on a new and expensive CD with all the money I had. I don't care about the proce of free software. For me it's all about freedom. I do believe quite a few people think that way.

Really. I have yet to even contemplate it. Sure I have the codec on my machine, but I haven't used it. Nothing is out there in the format that I am interested in or have even ran across accidently. I like portability of my music so I use MP3. [..] I have no intention of recording anything into the format, so it would be a poor choice for me to use it. How many people is it a good choice for? Why?

Actually, the reason is quite simple.

Hi Ogg, nice to meet you, i just broke up with MP3, want to go out?

MP3? I know her. She is such a bitch!

Seriously though, this news is exactly why Ogg Vorbis was created in the first place. I was always asking my friends to read Why artists should be using Ogg Vorbis by Daniel James. For them this is not news, this is not news at all, it is just a boring, predictable consequence of the stupid inertia giving them momentum. Nothing more.

Unlike the situation under DMCA, which attempts to block reverse engineering on copyright grounds, and may be subject to overturn on the basis of fair use precedents, reverse engineering of patented techniques has always been illegal and the case law all supports that.

Actually, reverse engineering of patented techniques has always been not only legal but pretty much pointless, since the whole point of the patent law is to have the detailed explaination publicly available for people to study so everyone could be able to implement the idea as son as the patent expires.

I can't find the links, but IIRC, at least one open source program for converting between different media formats, has withdrawn support for WMA because MS threatened them with a patent infringement lawsuit. The only real defense against an existing patent is to invalidate it in court, which can be a VERY expensive undertaking.

The same is the case with MP3. See mp3/mp3PRO Patent and Software Licensing Information. From the developer FAQ:

I want to support mp3/mp3PRO in my products. Do I need a license?

Yes. ['nuff said...] As for practically any important technology (and particularly for publicly established standards), you should know that patent rights for mp3 exist. Both Fraunhofer IIS-A and Thomson have done important work to develop mp3 audio compression (before and after it became part of the ISO/IEC MPEG standards). This work has resulted in many inventions and several patents, covering the mp3 standard. Although others may also hold patents, Fraunhofer IIS-A and Thomson have an important portfolio of patents related to mp3. [...]

That's why LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder but a GPLed patch against the dist10 ISO demonstration source, otherwise it would be just as illegal as a GPLed WMA encoder. In other words, MP3 is as evil as WMA. That's why artists should be using Ogg Vorbis.

I would like to see more artists using free as in free speech licenses. Remember that you don't have to use the license for all of your album. Most licenses allow you to license individual songs. You could choose to release your singles on the license and then restrict copying of your album tracks. That way you get publicity for your album through legitimate filesharing, you contribute to the musical commons, and your CD sales increase - all at the same time.

You also don't have to worry about piracy. What you're doing is effectively out-competing pirates by giving away what they would steal. There will be no market for their stolen product if everyone could just get it from you.

Read up on the various licenses, decide how you want to do it, and give it a try. That's what I did when I encountered the idea of copylefting music. I also went a step further and tried to write a persuasive essay on the subject (which is harder than you would expect). Not only did I learn a lot of the standard arguements and objections in my research, but I also solidified my own opinion and viewpoint.

This isn't new information. We've known the MP3 codec was proprietary and yet most of us continued to use it. If you want a real alternative, then I suggest looking at Ogg Vorbis. It's free as in beer and speech. It's also better!

Ogg vorbis is considered superior by a lot of electronic music pundits. It is also gaining popularity in some circles.... of course, there's a long way to go before MP3 can be reckoned with in terms of pure popularity, but technically, Ogg is already superior. The open nature of the format also makes it a potentially brilliant option for artists and consumers alike. If I were a portable music device manufacturer, I would seriously look at this format as a possible option in future products.

Linux on the Panasonic CF-41...
Makes a perfect Linux Box for me...

Its small, though and really cheap...it definetly isnt bloated with useless features and you can put in a real large disk since there are no bios-disk-size restrictions, the newer ones have real 12" ColorDisplay. Want something special? Its got its CD-Drive under the Keyboard...i think thats neat!
Need more performance? Try a newer Panasonic Thoughbook...i think they rock!